Hi, We are planning to buy land.

I'm not sure if you plan to rent out the entire house or do a rent-by-the-room but you should charge as much money as you can so that you can keep the extra cash. 

I'm a local so I plan to use that to my advantage.  

With the grace and mercy of GOD I will own my 1st Real Estate Investment property before the end of this year this will be 1 of many as I plan on retiring early so that I will be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor and help others where needed 

The CPA's above seem to have answered your question comprehensively, and just to summarize, you don't necessarily have you wait 5 full years, just fulfill 2 years of primary occupancy *within* the last 5 years. 

Should give you guidelines for properties and business plans. 

Definitely plan on looking more into those area but I will reach out because I’m sure I’ll have a ton of questions.

Consult Historical Zoning Information: Combine what you see on Google Maps with historical zoning data available from local city planning offices.

They wanted to plan trees on MY side of the fence and were just "letting me know" that's what they were going to do.Nope, not happening.

When we asked “what they were currently doing, what they planned to do, and how we could help.”